Using Elicitation Mechanisms to Estimate the Demand for Nutritious Maize: Evidence from Experiments in Rural Ghana

Abstract

We conduct a field experiment in Ghana to assess (a) consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a provitamin A maize variety, (b) the performance of three elicitation mechanisms (Becker-DeGroot-Marschak [BDM] mechanism, kth price auction, and choice experiment) in eliciting WTP, (c) the effect of participation fees on WTP and (d) the effect of nutrition information on WTP. WTP results are similar in magnitude across the three elicitation mechanisms. Variation in participation fee has no effect on estimated WTP in the two mechanisms that varied participation fee, suggesting that people did not have a higher propensity to spend out of windfall income. In the absence of information on the nutrient density of the provitamin A maize variety, consumers are willing to pay less for it than the existing varieties; however, nutrition information transforms this discount into a substantial premium.